Chicago Crime – The Crime Reporthttps://thecrimereport.org
Your Complete Criminal Justice ResourceMon, 19 Mar 2018 14:27:33 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Shootings, Murders Down in Violent Chicago Areahttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/12/08/shootings-murders-down-in-violent-chicago-area/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/12/08/shootings-murders-down-in-violent-chicago-area/#respondFri, 08 Dec 2017 12:50:06 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=219304Violence in the Chicago’s troubled Englewood police district has dropped dramatically in 2017, with shootings falling 44 percent and homicides down 45 percent over 2016. It’s only one year, experts, cops and even residents caution. Still, it’s happening in Englewood, a neighborhood whose name has long been synonymous with violence, gang warfare, poverty and despair, the Chicago Tribune reports. During the violent 1990s, the district emerged as a bloody territorial battleground for large street gangs such as the Gangster Disciples. Since then, those super gangs have splintered into smaller factions, changing the dynamic perhaps, but not the outcome. Since 2000, there have been more than 4,800 shootings in Englewood.

This year, the neighborhood is leading the city in declines in both shootings and homicides. In fact, in the past 17 years, shootings in Englewood have never been as low as they are today. Through Nov. 27, there were 193 shootings, compared with 248 five years ago and 398 in 2000. What’s changed? City officials point to the rollout this year of one of the first department technology-driven intelligence centers as key. The $1.5 million investment brings the latest crime prediction software and technology. Data analysts and police huddle daily to plan where to deploy officers. As the violent summer months wound down and the numbers held steady, a feeling spread across Englewood that the community was changing. One expert called the lower crime numbers “notable.” He urged caution, pointing out that homicides through mid-November remained above totals posted in 2013, 2014 and 2015. “It looks as though the resources devoted to the area nearly eliminated the big jump in homicides in 2016,” said criminologist Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri at St. Louis. “The challenge now is to sustain the attention in order to reduce the still quite large number of homicides the area has experienced over the past several years.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/12/08/shootings-murders-down-in-violent-chicago-area/feed/0Trump’s Cop Could Stop Chicago Crime ‘Immediately’https://thecrimereport.org/2017/10/12/trumps-cop-could-stop-chicago-crime-immediately/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/10/12/trumps-cop-could-stop-chicago-crime-immediately/#respondThu, 12 Oct 2017 06:50:33 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=203026In President Trump’s retelling, a mysterious Chicago police officer’s plan to solve the city’s crime problem keeps getting better, the Chicago Tribune reports. On Wednesday, Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that an unnamed Chicago motorcycle cop whom Trump claimed he met on the campaign trail said that “if they let us do our job we could stop [violent crime] immediately.” That’s a quicker turnaround than Trump has claimed was possible when he previously mentioned the mystery cop in references to Chicago crime, a favorite topic since he launched his run for office. Last year, he told former Fox host Bill O’Reilly that he believed the mystery cop when the officer told him he could solve Chicago’s crime problem “within a week” if he was in charge.

On Wednesday, Trump sliced the turnaround time to “immediately.” Telling Hannity “Chicago is out of control” and that “minorities want police protection… they need it more than everybody,” he added, “One of the things we are doing now very strongly is the inner cities” — a claim he did not expand on. The White House has ignored requests that it identify the cop Trump says could fix Chicago’s crime problem overnight. The president has said he passed the name of the officer to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel’s spokesman Adam Collins said that that was not true. Collins added, “If the president has a name for this mystery person he continues to talk about, we’re all ears. In the meantime, we live in the real world and if the president wants to build on the reductions in violence our hard working officers are achieving, if he wants to have an immediate effect on gun violence, he could do something to stop the guns that flow into our city from Indiana and Wisconsin.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/10/12/trumps-cop-could-stop-chicago-crime-immediately/feed/0Put the Guns Down: A Chicago Strategy for Curbing Violencehttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/24/put-the-guns-down-a-chicago-strategy-for-curbing-violence/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/24/put-the-guns-down-a-chicago-strategy-for-curbing-violence/#respondThu, 24 Aug 2017 15:28:36 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=187618A strategy aimed at reducing gun violence in Chicago by targeting gang members most at risk of being victims or perpetrators with a combination of “moral suasion” and the threat of criminal sanctions resulted in significant reductions of violence, according to an Urban Institute study.

The study focused on the Chicago Violence Reduction Strategy (VRS), launched in 2009 in Chicago neighborhoods identified as at-risk areas for shootings and gang activity. VRS involves calling in key members of violent street groups to meetings with community leaders and justice authorities, and putting them “on notice” that unless they desist from violent activities they will face criminal sanctions. But they are also given alternative options of counseling and social services if they put down their guns. Community leaders are also brought into the meetings to impress upon gang members that their actions are harming the neighborhood.

The program evaluation, which began in 2011, found that VRS was “associated with a 23 percent reduction in the shooting patterns of treated groups (victimization and offending) and a 32 percent reduction in the shooting victimization of group members.”

But it also found that the strategy’s impacts were limited to the neighborhoods themselves, and that widespread perceptions of mistrust in law enforcement represented a serious barrier to broader success.

The evaluation was conducted by Anika Dvwedi, Jocelyn Fontaine, Jesse Jannetta and David Leitson of the Urban Institute and Andrew Papachristos of Yale University. Funding was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The full study is available here.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/24/put-the-guns-down-a-chicago-strategy-for-curbing-violence/feed/0Video Gambling Linked to Crime Spike: Studyhttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/23/video-gambling-linked-to-crime-spike-study/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/23/video-gambling-linked-to-crime-spike-study/#commentsWed, 23 Aug 2017 14:38:57 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=187225A new study led by economists at the University of Illinois suggests that access to video gambling is responsible for an increase of violent crime and property crime in Chicago.

The Video Gaming Act of Illinois took effect in 2012, allowing local businesses with a liquor license to have up to four gambling terminals; presently, there are somewhere around 6,000 video gambling parlors in the state. Chicago maintains its 1993 ban on gambling, but access to video gambling has increased in the city thanks to its adoption by neighboring municipalities.

Unlike other gambling studies which have been region- or state- specific, the authors analyzed block-level data. Drawing on police reports between January 2006 and June 2016, as well as monthly data on establishments with video gambling from the Illinois Gaming Board, the study found that “access to gambling adds on average 0.10 and 0.28 violent and property crimes per block group each month.

In other words, legalizing video gambling has contributed to approximately 1,450 and 4,100 additional violent and property crimes in Chicago since the Video Gaming Act took effect.”

While former studies have found a positive link between casinos and increased crime, the authors point out that “crime effects due to casino openings are driven by multiple mechanisms, not just gambling itself,” including an increase of visitors to counties where a casino has opened. By looking at video gambling only, researchers were able to eliminate factors extraneous to gambling.

“The effect of access to video gambling on crime seems to be permanent. It increases over time and stabilizes after twelve to eighteen months,” the study concludes.

Within the blocks closest to video gaming establishments, the authors found:

Most of the effects on violent crimes are driven by robbery, which increased by 13.1%

No statistically significant effects for homicide or aggravated assault.

Increase in property crime, mostly driven by an increase in motor vehicle thefts of 12.3%

Burglary and larceny also increased by 5.6% and 4.78%

This summary was prepared by Deputy Content Editor Victoria Mckenzie. The full report, authored by Nicolas Bottan, Andres Ham, and Ignacio Sarmiento-Barbieri, can be downloaded here. Readers’ comments are welcome.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/23/video-gambling-linked-to-crime-spike-study/feed/1Trump Retweets Right Winger’s Post on Chicago Crimehttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/15/trump-retweets-right-wingers-post-on-chicago-crime/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/15/trump-retweets-right-wingers-post-on-chicago-crime/#respondTue, 15 Aug 2017 11:21:35 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=184992President Trump yesterday retweeted a post from right-wing provocateur Jack Posobiec, which linked to a story from an ABC affiliate and read, “Meanwhile: 39 shootings in Chicago this weekend, 9 deaths. No national media outrage. Why is that?” Trump’s decision to spotlight Posobiec drew criticism, particularly in light of the weekend violence in Charlottesville, the Washington Post reports. Trump provoked public outrage when he took two days after the white nationalist rally and the death of Heather Heyer to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis by name.

Posobiec, who describes himself as a “Republican political operative,” pushed back against characterizations of him as “alt-right” and said he has consistently disavowed white nationalists and displays of violence. Posobiec is a former Navy Reserve intelligence officer who has previously served as a leader of a pro-Trump grass-roots organization, and until recently worked for right-wing website The Rebel. Writing to the New York Times, Posobiec described his work as “reality journalism — part investigative, part activist, part commentary.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/08/15/trump-retweets-right-wingers-post-on-chicago-crime/feed/0Over Long Holiday, 15 Killed, 87 Wounded in Chicagohttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/06/over-long-holiday-15-killed-87-wounded-in-chicago/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/06/over-long-holiday-15-killed-87-wounded-in-chicago/#respondThu, 06 Jul 2017 10:10:09 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=173411The Chicago Police Department is conducting “a very comprehensive review” after the city experienced one of its most violent Fourth of July weekends in recent years, with at least 102 people shot between late Friday afternoon and early Wednesday, The Chicago Tribune reports. “We’re doing a debriefing,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “The mood here is frustration.” The review will include an analysis of how “amateur fireworks” might have affected the ShotSpotter system, which captures audio of gunfire and attempts to pinpoint its location for quicker deployment of officers. “It’s perplexing,” Guglielmi said. “We deployed some very successful tactics over the Memorial Day weekend.” Those same tactics did not seem to work as well over the Fourth holiday. Fifteen people were killed and 87 others were wounded. The last time the Fourth holiday spanned four full days, in 2013, at least 74 people were shot, and 12 of them died.

Meanwhile, former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is mulling making his first run for political office against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the man who fired him, the Tribune reports. Small gold and green “GMFM” buttons have been circulating, short for Garry McCarthy For Mayor. McCarthy acknowledged he’s weighing a challenge. “There’s a group of people who are very serious about this, and they are looking at all the angles,” he said. “I haven’t said ‘no’ yet. Let’s put it that way.” McCarthy called a run for mayor “probably unlikely.” Emanuel fired McCarthy in December 2015 amid the fallout of a judge ordering the mayor to release a video of the Laquan McDonald police shooting. McCarthy has taken up work as security consultant while making occasional television and radio appearances criticizing the city’s leadership and the homicide rate that has soared. McCarthy, 58, said he “can’t stand what’s going on in this city.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/06/over-long-holiday-15-killed-87-wounded-in-chicago/feed/0Murder Up Slightly, Shootings Down in Chicagohttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/01/murder-up-slightly-shootings-down-in-chicago-this-year/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/01/murder-up-slightly-shootings-down-in-chicago-this-year/#respondSat, 01 Jul 2017 17:09:14 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=172469At the year’s midpoint, 323 people have died in Chicago violence, one more homicide than a year earlier, the Chicago Tribune reports . With the bulk of the summer still ahead, the city is on course to top 700 homicides for a second consecutive year, a mark that had otherwise not been reached in two decades. Though far from ranking as the nation’s murder capital on a per-capita basis, Chicago is the runaway leader in the sheer volume of killings and shootings. Chicago had 50 more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined through mid-June, even though it is far less populous than both.

Shootings in the city are down by 14 percent this year compared to the first six months of 2016, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. As of Friday night, 1,752 people had been shot during the first half of this year. The police department touted June as the fourth straight month with a reduction in shootings compared to the same time last year. “All of us who love this city were saddened and sickened with the level of violence last year …” said Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “Over the first six months of 2017 we have implemented a smart policing strategy that is showing early signs of progress.” This year, the department deployed more ShotSpotter gunfire detectors and “Strategic Decision Support Centers” in five police districts. Shootings have fallen by about a third in those districts — a decline that was five times larger than districts without the so-called “intel nerve centers.” Johnson said the “early results from this evidence-based, data-driven approach have even impressed some of the old-timers in the police department.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/07/01/murder-up-slightly-shootings-down-in-chicago-this-year/feed/0Chicago Reaches 200 Homicides; Shootings Downhttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/05/10/chicago-reaches-200-homicides-shootings-down/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/05/10/chicago-reaches-200-homicides-shootings-down/#respondWed, 10 May 2017 08:00:25 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=156520A man who died Monday night was Chicago’s 200th homicide this year, the Chicago Tribune reports. The city reached the grim milestone just four days later than last year, which was the most violent in decades. The man, in his mid-20s, was approached by several people and shots were fired, police said. He was hit several times and died on the scene. While the number of homicides this year are on the same pace as last year, the number of people shot and wounded is down by more than a hundred despite a violent weekend that saw 10 people shot at a memorial on Sunday.

As of Monday, at least 1,114 people have been shot in Chicago this year compared with 1,239 this time last year. Monday’s death was among three shootings in a two-hour period Monday on Chcago’s South Side.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/05/10/chicago-reaches-200-homicides-shootings-down/feed/0Trump, Sessions to Meet With FOP on Chicago Violencehttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/27/trump-sessions-to-meet-with-fop-on-chicago-violence/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/27/trump-sessions-to-meet-with-fop-on-chicago-violence/#respondMon, 27 Mar 2017 13:44:53 +0000https://livesite.qdoznr1-liquidwebsites.com/?p=140008Chicago Fraternal Order of Police chief Dean Angelo, who represents the Chicago Police Department’s embattled and embittered rank and file, has been summoned to meet tomorrow with President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to discuss Chicago gun violence, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Trump will meet with leaders of the National Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed him last year.

“Angelo would want to be an active participant in the process if there is a consent decree forcing the city to make [police department] changes,” said a source. “Especially if there is a federal oversight person in charge to ensure the city follows the final Department of Justice report on Chicago police in January.” Angelo is embroiled in a re-election battle next month.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/27/trump-sessions-to-meet-with-fop-on-chicago-violence/feed/0Few Federal Gun Cases in Chicago Involved Traffickershttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/18/few-federal-gun-cases-in-chicago-involved-traffickers/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/18/few-federal-gun-cases-in-chicago-involved-traffickers/#respondSat, 18 Mar 2017 08:12:04 +0000http://thecrimereport.org/?p=135816Zachary Fardon, the ousted U.S. Attorney in Chicago, says he prosecuted more gun cases last year than in any year since 2004. The office opened 105 weapons cases in the year that ended Sept. 30, up from 73 a year earlier and the highest annual total in at least two decades. Yet few cases involved traffickers, those at the top of the illegal gun-distribution chain, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. For more than 60 percent of the defendants, the most serious charge was illegally transporting or possessing firearms. For about 20 percent of them, it was using a gun in a drug deal. Even fewer were charged primarily with the more serious offenses of trafficking or selling guns.

The number of gun prosecutions by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago continues to trail many other big cities grappling with violence and gangs. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Detroit pursued about twice the number of gun cases last year as those in Chicago. In St. Louis, they pursued nearly three times as many. The Trump administration’s first budget blueprint proposes a $175 million boost in Justice Department spending to “target the worst of the worst criminal organizations and drug traffickers” in Chicago and elsewhere. It doesn’t say how the money would be used.

Hours after he abruptly resigned as Chicago’s top federal prosecutor, Zachary Fardon issued a fiery open letter urging the city and U.S. Justice Department to push through a consent decree for sweeping changes at the Chicago Police Department, reports the Chicago Tribune. The letter called for federal and local police to “flood” neighborhoods afflicted by rampant gang crime and labeled social media as what’s driving “the virus of gun play” among young people. Fardon expressed a deep frustration with the entrenched nature of the violence, which last year increased to levels unseen in two decades even though Fardon made it his office’s top priority from the moment he took the reins in October 2013. “At no moment during those three and a half years did the gun violence abate,” he wrote. “Every month, every year, innocents died, kids died.”

Fardon and other U.S. Attorneys were asked to submit his resignation Friday by Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente. The selection process for a new nominee traditionally has been headed by the senior member of the congressional delegation from the president’s party — currently Rep. John Shimkus of Collinsville, near St. Louis. The search that led to Fardon’s selection included a committee that spent months developing a list of finalists that was then forwarded to the state’s two senators — Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and then-Sen. Mark Kirk, a Republican. It’s not clear if the Trump administration will adhere to that procedure.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/03/15/departed-chicago-u-s-attorney-seeks-flood-of-policing/feed/0Seven More Chicago Murders; Trump Says City “Needs Help!”https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/24/seven-more-chicago-murders-trump-says-city-needs-help/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/24/seven-more-chicago-murders-trump-says-city-needs-help/#respondFri, 24 Feb 2017 12:18:31 +0000http://thecrimereport.org/?p=126248Seven people were fatally shot in Chicago on Wednesday, making it the deadliest day of 2017 so far, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. It was only the 21st time in the past 16 years that Chicago has seen that many homicides in a single day. The bloody day prompted another tweet from President Trump, who wrote “Seven people shot and killed yesterday in Chicago. What is going on there – totally out of control. Chicago needs help!” As has been the case with other Trump tweets on the subject, there were no specifics on how he might help the city.

The new homicide victims ranged from a pregnant woman in her 20s to a 60-year-old man. Five of the seven homicides came within a two-hour period. Ninety-eight homicides have been recorded in the city in the first eight weeks of the year. That’s one more than the number of people killed in the city during the same time last year, which was considered the most violent in Chicago in two decades. Trump’s tweet is the latest in a string of salvos that led Mayor Rahm Emanuel to travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss what sort of federal help the Trump administration might be willing to provide the city. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said last night that the rampant violence in the city is “unacceptable to me, to the Mayor and to everyone who lives in Chicago.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/24/seven-more-chicago-murders-trump-says-city-needs-help/feed/0CA Sheriff Wants Prosecutors to Know Of Problem Officershttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/21/ca-sheriff-wants-prosecutors-to-know-of-problem-officers/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/21/ca-sheriff-wants-prosecutors-to-know-of-problem-officers/#respondTue, 21 Feb 2017 07:27:45 +0000http://thecrimereport.org/?p=125009The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has collected the names of 300 deputies who have a history of past misconduct such as domestic violence, theft, bribery and brutality that could damage their credibility if they testify in court. Sheriff Jim McDonnell wants to send the names to prosecutors, who can decide whether to add them to an internal database that tracks problem officers in case the information needs to be disclosed to defendants in criminal trials, reports the Los Angeles Times. McDonnell’s move has set off a battle that pits the privacy rights of officers against efforts by law enforcement agencies to be more transparent.

The union that represents rank-and-file deputies opposes providing the names to prosecutors and has taken the department to court. The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs argues that the disclosure would violate state laws protecting officer personnel files and draw unfair scrutiny on deputies whose mistakes might have happened long ago. An appeals court last week sided with the union, temporarily blocking the Sheriff’s Department from sending names to the district attorney’s office. The battle is being closely watched by other law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department, which is considering whether to adopt the same practice. Police departments in at least a dozen counties, such as San Francisco and Sacramento, regularly send prosecutors the names of problem officers.

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/21/ca-sheriff-wants-prosecutors-to-know-of-problem-officers/feed/0Trump Blames Chicago Crime on Illegal Immigrantshttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/09/trump-blames-chicago-crime-on-illegal-immigrants/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/09/trump-blames-chicago-crime-on-illegal-immigrants/#respondThu, 09 Feb 2017 12:46:57 +0000http://thecrimereport.org/?p=119321President Trump charged that Chicago’s crime problems are caused partly by gang members, “many of whom are not even legally in our country,” the Chicago Tribune reports. Trump, addressing a conference of police chiefs and sheriffs, urged them to “turn in” bad actors to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “I want you to turn in the bad ones,” Trump said. “We’ll get them out of our country and bring them back to where they came from and we’ll do it fast.” Trump offered no evidence that gang members in the country illegally are behind much of the violence. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said, “I don’t know anyone in Chicago who believes” illegal immigrants cause Chicago’s gang problems, she said. “Unfortunately, the difficulties that we have are homegrown. They are not a function of illegal immigrants.”

Addressing the Major Cities Chiefs Association, Trump said, “In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone, and the rate so far this year has been even higher. What is going on in Chicago?” The Tribune said shootings are up 8 percent so far this year, but homicides are down about 20 percent. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office questioned Trump’s sincerity. “With all the talk and no action, you have to wonder whether the administration is serious about working with us on solutions, or if they are just using violence in this great city to score political points,” said spokesman Matt McGrath. “We’ve been clear, there are ways the federal government can help, and we’re happy to partner with the administration whenever they decide to stop talking and start acting.”

]]>https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/09/trump-blames-chicago-crime-on-illegal-immigrants/feed/0ATF Considers Adding Agents to Fight Chicago Crimehttps://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/06/atf-considers-adding-agents-to-fight-chicago-crime/
https://thecrimereport.org/2017/02/06/atf-considers-adding-agents-to-fight-chicago-crime/#respondMon, 06 Feb 2017 08:26:21 +0000http://thecrimereport.org/?p=118215The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is examining a variety of options to address Chicago’s deadly crime surge, including sending a number of its agents to the city on permanent assignments, reports USA Today. David Coulson, a Chicago ATF agent, said the agency is early in the process of developing strategies to bolster its efforts in the nation’s third-largest city. President Trump has repeatedly criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel over Chicago’s more that 760 murders and 4,300 shooting victims last year. The city tallied 51 murders and 299 shootings in the first month of 2017, a slight increase from the bloody start to last year.

The president has made vague threats about federal intervention in Chicago. Emanuel has said he would welcome federal assistance, short of sending federal troops into the city. “It would be welcome news if the administration has indeed agreed to one of Mayor Emanuel’s requests for federal resources,” said Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins. “We remain hopeful that they will also provide added DEA and FBI agents, that they will boost the prosecution rate for federal gun crimes in Chicago, and that they will provide funding for successful violence prevention efforts.”